This stele is located outside the mountain gate of Qixia Temple, called Ming Zhengjun Monument, and the Thousand Buddha Grottoes and Stupa and called Qixia Mountain Three Treasures, for the national key cultural relics protection unit, the Tang Dynasty in the third year of the First Century (676) erected, the full name "Qixia Temple Ming Zhengjun Monument", 1300 years ago, not only the best preserved in Nanjing, the largest Tang stele, in the country's existing Tang stele, is also an extremely rare treasure, the inscription on the above is one of the earliest calligraphy inscriptions in China, has a high artistic value. In order to better protect this monument, in recent years, Qixia Mountain has built a pavilion on the monument to protect it, and it is closed all year round.
The monument has several highlights:
First, the inscription was written by Emperor Gaozong of Tang, Li Zhi, with four or six rhymes throughout, and then ended with ten inscriptions;
Second, the main text is the famous calligrapher Gao Zhengchen of the Tang Dynasty, Gao Zhengchen's calligraphy is profound, its basic penmanship is taken from Wang Xizhi, and also draws on the Chu Suiliang brushwork of one of the "four masters" of the early Tang Dynasty, which is integrated and integrated, and becomes a family of its own, favored by Li Zhi of Tang Gaozong, Li Dan of Emperor Yuanzong and Li Longji of Xuanzong, and is widely loved and studied by scholars, the historian of calligraphy in the Tang Dynasty, Zhang Huaijuan, said that his characters are "both muscles and bones", Chen Si of the Song Dynasty called it "good and righteous, xing, cursive", and Ye Chang of the Qing Dynasty called it "the wind and bones are solemn, and the essence is shining". It can be seen that successive generations have highly evaluated his calligraphy achievements. And this stele is written in line, the whole text is full of rhyme, quaint and dignified, the knot body is round and beautiful, just healthy and graceful, not only maintains the wind god of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, but also contains the elegance of the early Tang Dynasty, which is really a good product in the stele, a good structure in the book world, and is precious;
Third, the four characters of the stele "Ming Zhengjun Stele" are sealed by another calligrapher, Wang Zhijing, whose calligraphy works have the reputation of "exquisite and exquisite, not inferior to Yu Chu", and the calligraphy of this stele is deep and profound, which is admirable.
Fourth, the word "Qixia" in the stele was written by Tang Gaozong himself, and the pen posture was majestic, the pen strength was vigorous and majestic, the spirit was vigorous, the momentum was open, and it really had everyone's demeanor.
Fifth, the stele is collected from Qixia Mountain, is the Qixia Formation of gray rocks, and animal fossils, the surface plum-like markings are animal sea lily stem fossils and Chinese hole coral fossils that grew in the shallow sea 280 million years ago, there are more than 22,000, which is a rare fossil specimen in the geological world, and has high geological value, known as "plum blossom stone". After more than a thousand years of wind and rain erosion, this monument can still lose its former glory, which is a miracle.
Sixth, the ornamentation of the six dragon arches on the stele and the lion's head ribbon passionflower ornament on both sides of the stele reflect the fashion of the Tang Dynasty, making the stele a rare treasure of calligraphy art.
Seventh, according to historical records, before the Ming Dynasty, most of the stele were turtles, and this was still the case in the Song Dynasty, and the stele carved on this stele was the dragon head, which was actually the only product in the Tang stele.
Eighth, the word "Nanjing" appears in this inscription, which is the earliest cultural relics in the Nanjing area so far. The original text is "Lingjiang, SuiJin Nanjing; Negative Battle Spring Hill, Tour Of The Forest". Whether this "Nanjing" refers to the current Nanjing remains to be examined. After all, the history books record "Nanjing" as the earliest place name of the city in the Ming Dynasty Hongwu Yuan.
Ming Zhengjun's original name was Ming Monk Shao, the character Chenglie, a native of Shandong. During the Song Dynasty, Liu Song successively served as Zheng Zhilang, a soldier, and a regular member of the Outer Lang, but he later first hid in The Laoshan Mountains in Shandong, gathered apprentices to give lectures, and then followed his brother Ming Qingfu to Yuyu Mountain in Yuzhou (present-day Lianyungang), "Qiyun Jingshe, playing with water and stones, and did not even enter the city of Zhou". After Qingfu looked back at Jiankang, the Ming monk Shao returned with him and went to the Southern Dynasty Xiao Qi to live in seclusion in the mountains, during which time the emperor had issued many edicts to recruit him to hold an official position, but he always insisted on resigning, and his true hermit spirit of being willing to be indifferent, not seeking wealth, self-love, and strict ethics was revered by people, so he had the reputation of "zhengjun" and "hidden jun". In the seventh year of the Southern Qi Yongming (489), ming monk Shao donated his residence in Regent Mountain to build a temple, because he was aliased "Qixia", so the temple was called "Qixia Jingshe", which is now Qixia Temple, and Regent Mountain was also named Qixia Mountain, so Ming Zhengjun was the founder of Qixia Temple.
The main text of this stele is 33 lines, 74 words, the full text is 2376 words, there are still 2363 words, only 13 words are missing, the handwriting is clear and legible, the stele is 2.74 meters high, 1.31 meters wide, and 0.36 meters thick
After the death of Ming Monk Shao, nearly 200 years passed, and by the time of Emperor Gaozong of Tang and Li Zhi, the fifth generation of Ming Monk Shao's grandson Ming Chongyu was highly used by Li Zhi and Empress Wu Zetian for his "fangwai techniques", and served as the literature of the Ji Dynasty, and later became the Zhengzhi Dafu. The history books say that he had the ability to summon wind and rain, to serve ghosts and gods, to cast spells, to "get snow in the middle of summer, melon in April", and he also managed to pray for Gaozong's blessing for a long time, which won the emperor's favor. Just when Ming Chong's position was prominent, he did not forget the Guangzong Yaozu, raised the portal, and specially proposed to Li Zhi to erect a monument for the fifth ancestor Ming monk Shaoshu, and Tang Gaozong angrily agreed, personally wrote this inscription, and gave this monument to the west side of qixia Temple.
The inscription recounts the process of Ming Monk Shao's belief in Buddhism, living in seclusion in Qixia, and thanking the emperor for his conscription, and also talks about the historical facts of qi and Liang's second generation of building Buddha statues in Mount Regent, that is, the excavation of the Thousand Buddha Rock in Qixia Mountain, and praises the clean and noble deeds of this ancestor who Ming Chongyu is proud of, and the inscription has certain historical significance.